As some of you who have solar systems, or have looked into them, might know that it is an expensive investment. But the benefits of having a solar array charging silently away at your batteries are truly magical. Unlike generators that need to be refueled and maintained, solar panels last practically forever. They have no moving parts and require no regular upkeep. The fact that they turn our abundant sunshine to usable energy stored away in our RV batteries for later use is a modern day miracle.

As opposed to charging your batteries using an AC extension cord, a solar system bypasses the inverter and charges the batteries directly. That means there is no energy lost during the AC to DC conversion. It is very efficient and obviously an environmentally friendly alternative. Something every solar system should also have is a good quality charge controller. A charge controller monitors the level of charge you have in your batteries and provides the right amount of voltage going into them so they do not get damaged. In a pinch, you can wire solar panels directly into your 12-volt batteries but you are taking the risk of permanently damaging your cells.

A high quality, modern charge cotroller should also be of the MPPT variety. That stands for Maximum Power Point Tracking. As compared to the traditional PVM (Pulse Width Modulation) charge controllers, the MPPT controllers will maximize the amount of amperage and voltage coming into your system and can generally give you a 10-20% boost in the number of amps you are putting back into your system. Think of that as similar to getting 10-20 percent more watts in your solar panels which can mean a pretty significant cost savings.

When we installed our solar system, we purchased the parts individually buy finding the parts we wanted. To be able to completely replenish the batteries daily in an Airstream of our size, we would need at least a 200-watt system. We typically do not boon dock for more than a few days and did not see the need to install such a large system right away. You will also need to carefully consider the size of the panels as they need to fit the space constraints of your roof. We started with just two 50-watt panels that fit nicely in front of the AC unit.

Using the existing solar wiring from the factory, we asked our friends at C&G Trailers to mount and wire the solar panels. Instead of purchasing and installing a complete system, which would have cost close to $2000, the installation of the panels was only a couple hundred dollars. A new set of wires were connected to the batteries and both were lead out to the space directly above the TV and behind the fridge.

To complete the system, I purchased a Blue Sky 2000E MPPT Solar Controller from an online retailer and carefully cut out the space required to install the panel. I taped the area with blue painter’s tape during the cutting process to avoid scratching the surfaces around it. After first testing and then connecting the wires, we were in business.

Here is a video of how the system works in a sunny afternoon.

We are so far very happy with our solar charging system. It will not completely eliminate the need for our generator or electrical hookups but it keeps our batteries nicely topped off when she isn’t being used plus we now have the luxury of not having to run our generator every day when we are boon docking. With the way we installed our system, we spent a fraction of what a turn-key system would have cost and still have room to upgrade to more panels in the future.

Here are the components we bought for our system:

1. 2 x 50W Mono-crystalline Solar Panel

2. 1 x Blue Sky 2000E MPPT Charge Controller

Our total cost of the system came to just about $700. $350 for the solar panels, $200 for the labor and parts of mounting and wiring by C & G Trailers and $150 for the charge controller. That is 1/3 of what a system like this would cost if bought as a package.

over and out,
dan

I am a huge fan of Etsy. As I am of Anthropologie. And this week my heart broke a little when Anthropologie’s big sister, Urban Outfitters, pretty much stole a line of necklaces from a small guy gal on Etsy. People were going nuts. But then a little article came out on Regetsy about people on Etsy stealing from others on Esty and it shut some of them up and for others, added more fuel to the fire.

But I am not hear to preach to you about how stealing is wrong. I am here to help you do a little shop shopping for your Airstream and/or home.

I’ve stumbled upon a couple awesome prints on Etsy that are fitting for those of us that enjoy the road. This first one by The Wheatfield is my favorite. It is currently sold out but I’m sure it will be back in stock soon. And when it is, I am buying one ASAP… unless you swoop in and get to it first. Damn, maybe I should have kept this my little secret.

This same seller also makes this gem. True that, Wheatfield. True that!

Then there is this sweet little postcard for only a buck twenty-five. What a deal!

Which reminds me our our little photo shoot with our toy Airstream. Hmmm, maybe we should set up a Etsy shop too?

And on top of having unique prints, there is also a good handful or two of other handmade Airstream goods. Here is a little sample of my favorites. A cute camping card; an Airstream dog collar; Mi casa es su casa Airstream banner; and a custom Airstream journal.

And if vintage is your thing, check these babies out. An actual vintage Leg-0-matic folding chair made for Airstreams back in the day; an awesome vintage toy trailer that reminds me of The Shady Dell; a ‘God bless our camper’ plate; and last but not least, an actual vintage Airstream.

Folks, don’t get mad at me if you max out your credit cards today. I am just the messenger.

the end,
marlene

A good buddy of mine from high school use to work at one of their stores. One that pretty much looked just like this one. He claims ’til this day that it was the best job he has ever had. There might be just a tad of hyperbole but who wouldn’t love getting employee discount on all the cargo pants your minimum wage paycheck can afford? Jokes aside, Eddie Bauer does represent the very outdoors men lifestyle that embodies the spirit of campers and travelers around the world.

It is not just all sweater vests and cargo shorts, they also make some of the most serious outdoors gear under Eddie Bauer’s First Ascent brand for people much braver than myself. People who spend their days climbing over glaciers, trekking across deserts and foraging through jungles. People like the young boy born in 1899 who was taught to fish and hunt by his German-speaking Russian immigrant parents in the Pacific Northwest: Eddie Bauer.

Here is a photo young Eddie who started a little store in his early 20′s called Eddie Bauer’s Sport Shop.

This is him much later in life. Eddie Bauer passed away in 1986 of natural causes. In this photo, he still has that same great smile as he did some 60 years prior.

The company since its founding has gone through many corporate makeovers and leadership transitions. However the spirit of the outdoors have alway stayed true through nearly a century of existence. Another thing that has stayed consistent is their ability to collaborate with other companies.

If you are a parent, you have probably seen the Eddie Bauer line of strollers and car seats. Or maybe you have seen one of their Eddie Bauer edition Ford Explorers that have been rolling around for nearly 10 years.

Automobiles are not the only thing they have deemed worthy enough for the Eddie Bauer name, in early 2010, they collaborated with Airstream to create an one-of-a-kind PanAmerica that bears the First Ascent name. It spent the entire winter traveling between ski resorts searching of fresh powder and to lay down first tracks.

Talk about a match made in heave, the FirstAscent Airstream was definitely a head turner. It was completely custom built for the FirstAscent ski team on the then brand new PanAmerica platform. It was the first Airstream to feature a rear lift gate that turns a 34-ft trailer into a toy hauler with a garage.

A year later, the partnership culminated to the recently launched new model fittingly called the Eddie Bauer Airstream.

The Eddie Bauer Airstream is basically a souped up Airstream 25 ft FB. In fact, the 25 FB is the exact model that Mali Mish is. Ours happens to be the International Ocean Breeze edition but the floor plan is identical to the Eddie Bauer Airstream.

Here is Mali Mish on the day of us picking her up at the dealership back in October of 2008.

There are obviously some differences between ours and the Eddie Bauer. The obvious and most significant one is the rear lift gate. What the lift gate allows the owner to do is to easily load kayaks, surfboards, snowboards, bikes and whatever you might be into directly into the rear of the trailer with ease. On top of that, it really brings the indoor and outdoor spaces together so you can sit at the dinette with all the comfort of home yet feel like you are connected with the great outdoors.

The Eddie Bauer Airstream also got a handful of added features that make it more suitable for the adventurous type like high ground clearance, larger wheels and tires as well as wheel wells to protect the aluminum body from those rocks you might fling up while towing her through the woods.

The interior also gets a special makeover in order to wear that Eddie Bauer badge. It is sort of a mash-up of the International line and the Safari (Flying Cloud) model with the essence of Eddie Bauer thrown in.

Unveiled a month ago at the world famous Sundance Festival in Park City, Utah, the new trailer officially goes on sale this month and will start showing up at your local dealer soon if it isn’t already there. If you like what you see, be ready for it to take a real bite out of that wallet. Simply fork out the MSRP of just north of $73,000, you too can be the envy of everyone at your trailer park.

So go out an get one of these bad boys. After all, it’s just money. As if you didn’t already know, just like diamonds, Airstreams are forever.

over and out,
dan

But there is one small problem…

The speakers on the inside are mounted directly beneath the overhead storage compartments. It is right above our heads as we sit at the table. As they are pointed downwards towards the floor, unless you are sitting at the dinette, you have to turn the sound way up or you can not hear it at the gaucho seat. Exactly where Ava likes to sit and watch a little Wow Wow Wubbzy. You would think we could just turn the volume down on the speakers and only use the sounds from the TV. But that does not work when we are watching a DVD. The TV speakers are disabled. Time to go back to the drawing board.

The only option we have is to turn the sound up so she can hear her favorite cartoons but it is much too painful for us sitting directly below the speakers. We needed a solution and it came from a little dome that our Airstream’s entertainment system was bundled with that looks a little like a miniature, green R2D2.

This little guy has been living inside the hallway closet of the Mish for the past year. It is actually a wireless outdoor speaker made by Advent (ADV-W801) than receives radio signals from a little transmitter connected to the stereo. It is not necessarily the latest technology or the best of its kind but it does the job well. It is meant for casting your tunes from the stereo to the outside of the Airstream while you are grilling up a nice piece of rib eye or enjoying a cold one under the awning during a hot summer day. We found another use for it.

Being parents to a toddler and an infant, we won’t be having very many cocktail parties at the picnic table outside. Just as we thought this useless wireless speaker system was taking up too much of our precious cargo space, we have found a use for it that is making it irreplaceable. We are now glad to have a this little droid ride along with us.

over and out,
dan

Let’s try something new in this post. How about I start with a nice scenic shot of the beautiful campsite we stayed at for 8 nights before jumping into the details. Ahhhhhh….. Lake Cahuilla. I don’t know how to pronounce you but I surely adore you.

OK, on I go with the rest of the story…

Since Mila came home from the hospital almost 2 months ago, we reached a milestone in our lives. The milestone of going at least a couple of years without adding another member to our ever growing family. At least that’s the plan for now. With Marlene being pregnant and needing regular visits to the doc, we were figuratively chained to our home base. The only camping trips we have gone on in the last year have been short weekend ones. 3 nights in Lake Casitas, 2 nights in Port Hueneme, 1 night in Lake Piru and 2 nights in Malibu pretty much sums up the nights we’ve spent in Mali Mish since the start of the pregnancy.

Now that we are all working from home and Ava is, for the moment, not attending day care, we are finally ready to head out for an extended ‘faux-time’ excursion. Three-months, we thought, ought to be a good length of time to hit the road this winter. Well, on second thought, let’s get a shake down trip under our belt with all of us under one sheet of aluminum before we head out. Just to make sure we are still going to enjoy this as we did a year ago.

What we decided to do is a one week trip to someplace fairly local and fairly familiar. Not anywhere we’ve gone before so it can be a nice new experience but a place that we can quickly get back home in an emergency. At this time of year, Palm Desert is a nice choice because it is still warm enough during the day to hop in a body of water to cool down and it is comfortable at night to not need any sort of heating or cooling to stay comfortable. Being only around 300 miles away, we could hop in the van and shoot back if anything were to happen. So I researched some places and decided on Lake Cahuilla County Park in La Quinta, CA.

Of course Yoda has to also come along for the ride. So that makes 5 of us in the Airstream. 25 foot trailer, 5 of us, that’s 5 feet of space for each of us. Plenty of room! Right? On the first day, we drove to our friend Nicole’s parents house in Rancho Cucamonga. It is just about half way between our house and La Quinta. They graciously allowed us to camp at the curb and even threw us a big orange cord to keep the juices flowing.

Towing the Mish with the van was a breeze as usual except for the first leg of our trip. The coolant light kept coming on. There was no effect on the engine temperature but it still concerns me. It’s been happening even as I drive the van around town so that surely will need some attention before any further ambitious runs eastward. This time though, a little pour of pre-mixed coolant will have to do as a band-aid to get us through this week.

Marlene usually sits in the middle row captain’s chair next to Ava while I drive chauffeur-style up there by my lonesome. This time, it was not to be. Mila needed a place to dock her spaceship so my backseat driver was upgraded to my passenger seat driver. This is something that we will have to work out as well on longer trips because having an infant and a toddler taking turns fussing about behind us while we are driving is going to be trouble. The second row is laid out with a ton of leg room which means we can not reach them with our seat belts on.

Inside the Mish, sleeping arrangements are also going to have to be re-examined. In the past, Ava sleeps in her tent bed, which is designed for kids upwards of 6 or 7 years old. She likes the fact that it is hers and it is enclosed in a way that kids like cardboard boxes. That still works but Mila on the other hand, still sleeps in a bassinet.  We don’t have enough room to put the entire bassinet inside the trailer and she needs some form of protection on our bed so we don’t crush her in the middle of the night.

A little trip to Target and 40 bucks later, we have a handy dandy Co-Sleeper that tucks nicely in the the corner of our bed with a little built-in LED night light to help with the late night feedings. We are just about set.

The first night with all of us in Rancho Cucamonga was great. Right back in the swing of things. We were reminded of how comfortable we are on the road waking up inside the Airstream. A little coffee and some hot tea later, we packed up and were ready to head out to Lake Cahuilla.

Lake Cahuilla County Park is a municipal recreational area in Riverside County. It is a water reservoir for drinking so no swimming is allowed. It is a man-made lake for just that purpose so some of its features are kind of interesting.

Like these steps carved along the side of the lake.

This fenced-off structure for some type of maintenance purpose.

And some wooden steps that let you walk down to the edge of the water. The water you can’t swim in…

Lake Cahuilla is designed as a recreational area so there are some nice activities for locals and visitors. First of all, they stock the lake with lots of fish so people can come and drop a little line for an afternoon of casting and reeling. If you are into that kinda thing. None of us are fishermen so we look around for more things to do.

Around the corner from the campground, there is a big swimming pool and a playground for kids. Needless to say, Ava was excited to hear about that.

“Yay! Lets go swimming!”

“Ummm, Nicole? Why is there no one in there?”

“What is there a fence around the playground?”

“Oh snap! This place ain’t open anymore!!”

Sorry Ava, we didn’t know before we left that apparently every public pool closes at the beginning of October in Palm Springs. Even though it is still in the low 90s during the day, it is still apparently too cold for the locals who are use to 110 degree summer weather. We know this because we saw them buying sweaters at the store.

Well, at least the scenery is still beautiful.

Since Marlene and I are both working from home, and home is wherever we park the Mish, we had to pack up a little work with us on these trips. That means until we find another pool to dip our feet in, Ava is resorting to playing with her toys inside the tent I set up next to Mali Mish while I get some bills paid.

The first few nights there at the campground, we just had water and electricity. We had to use the public showers and be careful with our gray water consumption so we didn’t fill it up too quickly. After the second night, we decided that we wanted to stay a couple more nights. Unfortunately our site is booked for the 2 following nights after our original checkout date. We had to option to move 10 spaces down to a full hookup site for only $3 more a night.

“Ummm, dad? Full hookups? Only three bucks more? What are you waiting for?”

Having little choice but to move in order to stay the 2 extra nights, we packed up and shuttled down to the site a few yards down the road.

The new site is actually much closer to the water with great views right outside of our window. We had to make sure to keep an eye on Ava so she didn’t walk too close to the edge. With sewer hookup and the ability to take private showers, it was well worth it.

Didn’t take long to settle back in and get cozy again in our chairs.

Here is Mila reaping the benefits of a warm bath inside the Mish.

Did I mention the scenery is beautiful?

Lake Cahuilla is kind of a hidden gem in the greater Palm Springs area with all of its hotels, resorts, spas and golf courses. The entire time we were there, the campground never got filled up even half capacity. Maybe it’s because we visited toward the end of the summer season and the playgrounds and pools have already closed. But you bet that we will be coming back here again. As of 2009, hookup sites without sewer run a mere $22 a night. $3 more gets you one of the few full sites with your own dump connection. That is a bargain when it comes to camping in California where State Parks charge as much as $30 a night for primitive dry camping.

Before you start feeling bad for us with the pool not being open, here is a little preview of what we DID get to do:

Stay tuned for more posts from Mila’s maiden excursion in Mali Mish! There are lots more to come!

over and out,
dan